92 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal {February, 1907. 



L 



LOPHOPUSi 



Forms wMch may belong to this genus have been recorded oa 

 two occasions from India, from Bombay by Carter (oi?. cit.) 

 ^d from Madras by Mitcbell (op. cit.). Regarding the examples- 

 from Madras no information is available, while Hyatt, relying on 

 tarter s description of the Bombay form, placed this form in the 

 genus Pectinatella. As no further specimens have been examined,, 

 the generic^ position of " Pectmafella carteri;' as Hyatt called it,, 

 must remain doubtful. The form here noted has already been 

 described from Queensland and is very closely related to the 

 common Lophojpus crystalKmis, which is widely distributed ii* 

 tiurope and North America. Another form, having an almost cir- 

 cular statoblast, has been described from Brazil. i The genus is-- 

 easily recognized on account of its large, simple statoblasts and 

 swollen, hyaline ectocyst. From PectinateUa it is distinguished! 

 by the absence of hooks on the statoblasts. 



LopHOPus LEDENFELDi,2 Ridley. (Plate ii. figs. 1-4). 



L. ledenfeldi, Ridley in Journ. Linn. Soc. sx, p. 64, pi. 2, 1890. 



IJifierentiated from L. crystallinus ( Pallas) by the shape of its^ 

 statoblasts, which are distinctly truncated at one or both ends and 

 are_ devoid of the pointed prolongations of the two extremities- 

 which occur m those of the northern species. The tentacles are 

 also longer and more slender. 



Habitat: Bhim Tal (lake), Kumaon : alt. 4,500 feet. On root* 

 of Lemna and stems of other water-plants. September, 1906. 



Bemarhs : The form of the colonies and polypides agrees very 

 closely with that of European specimens, so far as it is possible to 

 ii f ? ^itl^out actual comparison of living specimens ; but I think: 

 that both polypides and colonies are smaller than those which com- 

 monly occur m northern latitudes and that the tentacles (whicb- 

 number from 20 to 30, are distinctly longer in proportion to their girth. 

 JNo colony was seen which measured more than about 3 mm. in- 

 length and 2 mm m breadtl, ; but such colonies contained a large- 

 number of polypides. The development of the ectocyst was fullT 

 T^ fV ^°™«^ly found in L. arystallinus, each colony when^ 

 retracted resembling a small mound of transparent jelly, in which 



vLl\lr ^ ^"^^'^^ ^^. *>" polypides could be detected. Tb^ 

 on wMph .r^""'! ^T"^""^ '" palmate formation. The statoblasts. 

 from L 1 f n'^ ^ '"" regarding this form as specifically distinct- 

 on an avl^t T'' identical with L. ledenfeldi, measured 



on an average 1 mm. by 06 mm., and were fair v unif. 



rni- 



« fnl^rZtL - fr""'^^. Berlin, 1893, p. 260, fig.. 1 and 2. 

 new specie" an^d^ca1lt7-7V"^\^^ "^,^ ^ r^K-^vAe6^ the KumaoS Lophop^is as » 

 error-N A 27 i "7 '^"««'«1/«"««. I now think that this was an^ 



